Localized Resilience: A Pathway to Justice-Based Urban Development

Abstract

Contemporary cities in Iran face a complex array of threats and challenges that are no longer merely natural or technical in nature, but are rooted in social, spatial, institutional, and environmental structures. Key challenges include increasing climate variability, the expansion of natural hazards such as floods, droughts, urban heat islands, and water crises, inequality in resource distribution, and the fragility of urban infrastructure. In such conditions, the concept of urban resilience has gained increasing importance as a theoretical and operational framework for assessing and enhancing cities’ capacity to confront, adapt to, and recover from crises. This article, based on conceptual and empirical analysis, examines the status and quality of urban resilience in Iran. A significant portion of policymaking and interventions remains at the physical and infrastructural level, with weak connections to soft dimensions such as social participation, multi-level governance, and spatial justice. On the other hand, modern urban planning approaches emphasize the need for integration between resilience, urban health, and spatial justice. Resilient cities must not only withstand hazards but also possess the ability to reconstruct structures, maintain quality of life, and ensure equitable access to key resources such as green spaces, public transportation, health-oriented infrastructure, and opportunities for social participation. In this regard, attention to neighborhood scale, strengthening local institutional capacities, and utilizing multidimensional data in decision-making can play a crucial role in enhancing the quality of resilience.